13 
SOME ORCHARD NOTES. 
That Scale Parasite. 
\ 
What has become of that parasite which was re¬ 
ported as cleaning out the scale in Pennsylvania? 
s. B. R. 
Nothing—it is still on deck. We have some of 
them in our own orchard, and we are waiting to 
see if they can stand our Winters. There have been 
several reports from people who think this parasite 
has cleared out the scale, but they have no definite 
proof. One year the scale nearly disappeared from 
our own orchard, though there was none of these 
parasites about. Next year the scale came back 
worse than ever. While we hope this parasite may 
help us we regard it as the height of folly to stop 
spraying and wait for this insect. Do not under 
any circumstances do that, but spray harder than 
ever. 
Putting Humus in the Soil. 
We have considerable land, mostly red shale loam, 
which is deficient in humus. We wish to remedy this 
condition next year on about 12 acres, so far as we 
can. We had thought of plowing down crops of oats and 
buckwheat next Summer and Fall and follow this with 
rye to plow down the following Spring. A friend has 
suggested that perhaps it would be a better policy to 
plant Cow-horn turnips and Crimson clover with the 
buckwheat and harvest the grain, leaving the turnips 
and clover for green manure—to be plowed in the 
Spring. This of course would save one plowing and 
give a crop of grain. It has also been suggested that 
good results could be obtained by sowing wheat, bar¬ 
ley or rye with the buckwheat, leaving it to make a 
large growth before Winter, or that Winter vetch could 
be similarly used to advantage. Elevation about 1,800 
feet and thermometer drops to 30 degrees below zero 
in Winter. Can you advise us as to best method to 
pursue in this case, (land well drained naturally)? 
Would like to take off buckwheat or similar crop to 
help pay expenses, but first object is good of the land 
regardless of next year’s use. H. L. a. 
Kingsley, Pa. 
Assuming that this land is now bare we should 
from our own experience in Northern New Jersey, 
plow this lard next Spring and sow Canada peas 
and oats. In late June plow this crop under and 
use a fair dressing of lime. Then sow to each acre 
two bushels of buckwheat, half a bushel of rye, 32 
pounds Crimson clover and two pounds Cow-liorn 
turnips. Cut the buckwheat at the usual time and 
save the grain if yon like. The clover, rye and tur¬ 
nips will then come on rapidly and make a heavy 
growth before Winter. In the Spring plow all that 
is left under in May. This will fill the soil with 
vegetable matter. 
An Orchard on a Hillside. 
I have a hillside 800 feet long, 150 feet high; fairly 
steep slope which I intend to clear. This hill was 
originally covered by a dense growth of pine. This 
was all cut off years ago. and nearly all traces of the 
stumps have vanished. The hill is now sparsely cov¬ 
ered with Red and White oak of about six inches in 
diameter; very little of any undergrowth, an exception¬ 
ally clean piece of land. The top soil is a rich mould 
of six inches, and underneath a light sandy loam very 
deep. I want to plant this in Stayman Winesaps, but 
do not intend plowing land. If I plow, the top soil will 
be entirely washed off. I intend hoeing around each 
tree, and increasing cultivation as the trees grow. Now 
is this practicable? Also, if I apply a liberal dressing 
of wood ashes, would these not give me all needed fertil¬ 
izers, as I imagine the trees would get enough nitro¬ 
gen from the rich wood mould? n. k. f. 
Richmond, Va. 
Yes, you can grow a good orchard in this way. 
The trees will not grow as rapidly as they would if 
well cultivated, but they will make a strong and 
steady growth. # Hand-hoeing these trees will be a 
tedious and hard job. From our own experience we 
should plow two or three furrows around each row, 
and work this narrow strip down with a cultivator. 
There will be but little washing, as the unplowed 
middles will hold the water. The wood ashes ought 
to furnish the needed plant food on that soil in 
the first two or three years. If the trees do not grow 
as they should, give them a little cotton-seed meal, 
which ought to be a good source of nitrogen with 
you. 
Good Words to Cover Crops. 
This has been my best year in farming. I am will¬ 
ing to acknowledge that I get many valuable hints from 
the best paper on earth— The It. N.-Y.. .1 have tested 
out the Hope Farm Man’s idea on cover crops and this 
past Summer has demonstrated that the humus in 
cover crops is valuable to help hold soil moisture. Al¬ 
though my farm is a small one I sowed 18 bushels of 
rye this Fall, beginning the last week in August in 
string beans and finishing 10 days ago on potato soil. 
The last sown is half an inch high. Most of this rye 
will be plowed under in the Spring. A. B. K. 
Macedon, N. Y. 
Cover crops and lime are slowly turning our own 
farm from a hard brick-like clay into an open and 
porous soil. There can be no question about the 
effect of such treatment to anyone who has eyes to 
see. We know that somh of the experts rather 
ridicule the use of rye. This humble crop is work¬ 
ing wonders for us as a starter on run-down soil. 
3'H E KURA L, NEW-VOEKEE. 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS AND FARM 
LABOR. 
In an editorial on page 1280 you ask the question, 
“Why not make it a requirement for entrance to an 
agricultural college that the student must show that 
he has worked six months or a year on a genuine 
business-like farm?” 
In this connection it may interest you to know 
that at the New York State School of Agriculture at 
Alfred University it is required that a student shall 
have worked at least six consecutive months during 
the growing season on a farm .approved by the 
faculty before he is given a diploma or is recom¬ 
mended for a position along agricultural lines. More 
than this, every student, whether he comes from the 
country or the city, is required during his first year 
to take a definite amount of actual farm practice, 
and to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the farm 
superintendent that he can perform the ordinary 
farm operations, such as plowing, harrowing, har¬ 
nessing teams, milking, etc. 
This institution is not an agricultural college, but 
a Secondary School of Agriculture supported by the 
State, and which offers a two-year course designed 
expressly to help young men who expect to make 
their living from the farm. The course of study 
is so arranged that it can be completed in two years 
of nine months each, or in three years of six months 
each. Students who have had little or no farm 
experience are always advised to elect the latter 
option, and to secure work 'during the two Summers 
with live, business-like farmers. As this arrange¬ 
ment permits them to begin work about the first of 
April, when month hands usually begin, they ex¬ 
perience no difficulty in securing good positions, 
where they secure valuable experience, and are able 
to earn a part of the funds necessary to defray the 
expenses of the following six months schooling. 
During the year 1912-13 a total of 240 students 
were registered at this school, more than 85 per 
cent of whom were from the eight counties of South¬ 
western New York. Many of these students were 
high-school graduates; some had completed only the 
eight grades as taught in the public schools, but the 
majority had had some high-school training. 
w. J. wrigiit, Director. 
SHALL WE BUILD A MANURE PIT? 
I have never had any personal experience with a 
manure pit. I have seen several, but to my views 
they were not practical. The manure was difficult 
to keep from freezing, while in bulk, and required 
too much labor in handling, from stable till applied 
on the field. Shrinkage and deterioration are al¬ 
ways going on in a mass, and for our system of 
general farming I would not recommend the build¬ 
ing of a manure pit. Our theory and practice for 
15 years has been direct from stable to field the 
entire year, with the few exceptions of severe rains 
or snow storms, when we could not ljaul direct to 
fields. We have not had a barrow-load of manure 
in the barnyard for 15 years, and there never will 
be any accumulation there as long as I farm 
Our soil is loam and clay, clay subsoil, and with 
us this system lias been beneficial. We have a 100- 
acre farm, all under plow except 15 acres; this is 
permanent pasture. We only pasture these 15 acres. 
The rest of the farm has not been pastured since 
we began this system of manuring direct from sta¬ 
ble to field, 15 years ago. 
Our crops are hay, wheat, corn, tobacco and a few 
potatoes. We practice a three and four-year rota¬ 
tion. After the Spring plowing is finished, all the 
manure that is made till wheat harvest is over is 
hauled direct with a manure spreader and applied 
to the 15 acres of permanent pasture. This pasture 
is top-dressed every season with a light coat of 
stable manure, and it certainly has made a very 
great change in way of production of grass. As 
soon as the wheat is harvested, we apply the man¬ 
ure as made on tho young grass, on’ top of the 
wheat stubble, which is intended for hay the com¬ 
ing year. This h is been most satisfactory to us. 
The liayfields are mowed but one season. The after- 
math or second-crop, clover, as soon as it begins to 
bloom, is clipped and left on field for mulch. We 
also clip the young clover fields as soon as the 
bloom appears, leaving all on the field for mulch. 
The clipping and the manure are a great protec¬ 
tion for the young grass and Mother Earth, it adds 
much to the mechanical condition of the soil, as 
well as conserves the moisture, so needful for the 
next season’s crops. There is no one element so 
generally deficient on all farms as that of humus, 
and few customs are as expensive as the pasture 
system, especially where land can be easily culti¬ 
vated. Our custom is this: put all the humus in 
your soil for corn; apply the manure direct to the 
field as needed; quit the custom of pasturing the 
I 
December 20, 
farm. If you wish to pasture make a permanent 
one and feed it by top-dressing with manure, or 
commercial fertilizer. j. Aldus hekr. 
Lancaster Co., Pa. 
WATER WILL SEEK ITS LEVEL. 
Will you umpire this, which threatens to disrupt the 
entire school district, break up families and cause war? 
Given a well 30 feet deep, cemented from bottom to 
top and holding usually six feet of water. If this well 
is filled to the top with water from another source will 
it hold the water or merely retain the usual six feet 
of water? The immediate trouble is that a man having 
such a well at his barn, had it run nearly dry last 
Summer, and proposes to make a combination well 
and cistern by putting gutter on his barn and storing 
rain water in the well. The matter has been brought 
to me for decision, and after hearing counsel on both 
sides I am inclined to decide against the cistern scheme, 
but have reserved my decision until I can get an 
opinion from someone who knows about wells. 
UMPIRE. 
Having umpired several ball games we will try 
to give a decision in this case. 
There is no doifbt that your inclination to decide 
against the combination is a proper one. The water 
added to the well from external sources would be 
retained only temporarily. Such things happen fre¬ 
quently with wells where, under proper conditions, 
the surface or rain water fills a well temporarily, 
but it goes away again within a ' day or 
so. The well level remains at the height 
of the water table in the surrounding soil. Any 
water introduced into the well would gradually 
flow out, raise the water table slightly and lower 
the water level in the well. Even the slight change 
in pressure of the air in case of a rising barometer 
has this effect of forcing the water out of the well 
to equalize the pressure. The rise in air pressure 
is immediately felt on the water in the well, while 
it is some time before the air confined in the soil 
above the water table has its pressure increased. 
There is therefore a period of time when the air- 
pressure on the water in the well exceeds that on 
the water outside. The result is as stated above. 
The time which it would take for the well you men¬ 
tion to get down to its regular six foot level de¬ 
pends entirely upon the character of the soil, that 
is, whether the soil is sandy or of clay. I would 
feel safe in predicting a decided fall within 24 hours 
after filling the well. b. l. c. 
THE OLD LIME STORY." 
How can I find out whether my land needs lime or not, 
and what crops does it benefit the most? Is it recom¬ 
mended for peaches? How is it best applied to land? 
How am I to know, if lime is needed, whether ground 
limestone or burnt lime? What is meant by slaked lime? 
Is it air-slaked or water-slaked? I seem to be very 
ignorant along this line. s. B. V. 
We cheerfully answer these lime questions again 
and again, as they are asked. A good test is to sow 
ordinary table beets in the soil. The beet is greatly 
influenced by lime. If it grows well and luxuriantly 
the soil does not need lime. If the beets fail lime is 
needed. The usual test is made by putting litmus 
paper into the soil. This is a sort of blotting paper 
stained blue by a dye made from litmus moss. This 
blue color will change to red, more or less deep, when 
put into anything that is acid, and change back to 
blue in alkaline condition. To make the test get fail- 
samples of the soil from different parts of the field 
and mix them together. Take enough of this mix¬ 
ture to fill a cup, and moisten it enough to make it 
firm Run a knife-blade down in it, and in this hole 
put a strip of the blue litmus paper and press the 
soil around it. Leave it there an hour. If the color 
changes, when dry, to pink or red, the soil is acid 
enough to need lime. 
Lime seems to give most benefit to clover, Alfalfa 
and similar plants, and most garden vegetables. 
Timothy is helped by it, but Red-top is not. Wheat 
and barley are helped by lime, oats somewhat and 
rye but little. Corn is not greatly helped—flint usu¬ 
ally more than dent. Strawberries are usually in¬ 
jured by lime, peaches need lime, apples not greatly 
benefited and bush fruits somewhat. In mixed farm 
ing with a general rotation the best plan is to use 
lime when seeding to grass and clover. In our own 
practice we plow under cover crops every year and 
use small yearly applications of lime with these 
crops. The best method is to spread the lime on the 
plowed furrows and harrow it in. Ground limestone 
is the raw lime rpek crushed or ground to a powder. 
Burnt lime is this lime rock burned in a kiln. This 
is also called quick or lump or caustic lime. When 
this burnt lime is exposed to the air or has water 
poured over it, it “slakes” or “takes up” a certain 
amount of water, and is then called slaked lime. It 
is air-slaked when exposed to the air alone. In a 
general way very sour land and usually the heavy 
clays may be treated with the slaked lime. The ground 
limestone will usually be better on the lighter soils, 
or when the soil is well filled with organic matter. 
